The present invention relates to a series of new 4-anilinopyrimidine derivatives having valuable antidepressant activity, to a process for preparing these compounds and to a pharmaceutical composition containing them.
A variety of compounds having antidepressant activity is known and many of these are used in the treatment of mental depression. The compounds mainly used for this purpose are commonly classified into two groups: the "monoamine oxidase inhibitors", which are mostly hydrazine derivatives; and the "tricyclic antidepressants", which mainly have a dibenzazepine or dibenzocycloheptene structure ["Martindale: The Extra Pharmacopoeia", twenty-seventh Edition (1977), published by The Pharmaceutical Press, London]. Of these classes, the tricyclic antidepressants are generally considered to be more effective than the monoamine oxidase inhibitors and are therefore preferred; one of the most preferred of the tricyclic antidepressants in current use is imipramine. All of the currently available antidepressants exhibit a variety of side-effects of varying degrees of seriousness which result in their use being somewhat restricted. Imipramine, for example, exhibits antihistaminic and anticholinergic activities.
The known classes of antidepressant, however, have a totally different molecular structure from the compounds of the invention.
A compound having a structure similar to that of the compounds of the invention, namely 4-anilino-5-bromo-6-methylpyrimidine, has been disclosed [Chem. Pharm. Bull. Tokyo, 27 (11), 2642-6 (1979)] but no use for the compound has been disclosed nor has it been disclosed that the compound exhibits any pharmaceutical activity. We have subsequently confirmed that this compound shows no antidepressant activity. Indeed, we know of no pyrimidine derivatives similar to the compounds of the invention which exhibit any such antidepressant activity.